The Innovator’s Dilemma and the US Economy

Clayton Christensen, in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma, discusses how disruptive technologies will kill incumbent technologies. Basically it is about how the crappy and cheap will eventually take over the sophisticated and expensive.

The well-worn example is in the computing world.  The PC (which until recently cost thousands of dollars) killed the dominance of the mini-computer and mainframe (which then cost tens of thousands of dollars).  The new $300 netbooks may eventually become the dominant computing platform.  Or maybe a $100 mobile phones will eventually replace computers altogether.

The dilemma arises because most companies focus their innovation energies on building faster and more sophisticated technologies: becoming bigger and better.  That is, they move towards the right of the graphic above.  Unfortunately, the newer, cheaper developments - even if they are lower quality (in the beginning) and don’t perform as well - will ultimately be the winners.  Or in other words, the left part of the graphic above.

The US Economy Dilemma

[Read more]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

7 Things You Can Do To Save Your Job… Or Create a New One

 

Last night I was on “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” on CNBC.  I was there to discuss how to save your job during a down economy.  I had a number of tips prepared, but due to limited time, I was only able to give 2. 

Here are my 7 “big ideas” for saving your job or creating a new job.

1. BE LAZY – Most people spend 60% - 75% of their time work on activities that do NOT create value for the business. Don’t! Be lazy and stop doing what you don’t need to do. Rethink all of your work and focus on the important activities. You’ll make yourself more valuable to the company and you will work less.

2. SEEK OUT OVERSEAS OPPORTUNITIES – Given the weak dollar, US products and services are bargains in other countries. Volunteer for an ex-pat job. Take on a sales job overseas. I will be spending more time overseas this year than I had over the previous 6 years combined.

3. ACT LIKE AN OWNER OF THE BUSINESS – If you think like the CEO rather than (fill in your job here), you will think more strategically. You will make smarter business decisions. Instead of just focusing on “what” you do, ask yourself “why” are you doing it. This will certainly impress your boss.

4. USE PERSONAL CONTACT RATHER THAN EMAIL – Deciding who to layoff is often more emotional than logical. Therefore, it is critical that you maintain a personal relationship with fellow employees and bosses. Email is impersonal. To help you break the habit, take my 30 day challenge.

5. PLAN FOR YOUR PINK SLIP – Assume that you will eventually lose your job or choose to leave. Therefore, be sure to build your resume, build your brand, and build your network of contacts outside of the company. Your career is your responsibility.

6. SOLVE PAINS – During tight economic times, people are more willing to invest in products/services that eliminate pains. Problem solvers are in big demand…always. My speeches on recession proofing businesses are more popular than those focused on innovation.

7. CHARGE MORE – Oscar Wilde once said, “A cynic knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.” People equate value with price. Charge more and you will be valued more. Reducing prices makes you a commodity. Increasing prices makes you a luxury. Luxury items tend to do better in tough economic times.

P.S. If you want to see the complete list of 10 tips I had prepared for the show, go to the CNBC website.  They also republished my article on “6 Ways Innovation Can Recession-Proof Your Business.”  You can also check out the complete list of guests from the show. 

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

How to Publish a Book in 2 Weeks for $200

I realize that book publishing does not directly relate to innovation.  But I have had so many conversations with people about this in recent weeks that I decided to write an article about it. 

This article is nearly 3000 words in length.  As you will see, if I double (or triple) the length, this article could become a book.

It seems as though everyone wants to write a book.  Well, actually everyone wants to publish a book.  Few people want to write one.  Unfortunately, most people don’t know where to start and therefore become undermotivated or overwhelmed.  The result?  Good intentions; no book.

But what if you could have a bookstore quality paperback in your hands in two weeks?  And what if you didn’t have to do much writing?

Here’s a technique you can use to publish a non-fiction book in a fortnight.  I recently wrote a book in a few days and had a published version in one week. 

To do this, you must use a print-on-demand self-publisher and not a traditional publisher.

Business books work best with the method.  Fiction requires an entirely different approach.

Before you get started, there is one question you must answer…

[Read more]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

What Innovators Can Learn From Vegas Card Counters

Which will help your business be more successful: statistics or probability?

Underwriters at insurance companies use statistics to assess future risks. This is based on years of collected data.

Probability is what card counters in Vegas use to increase their odds of success. This is based on real-time, real-life experience.

If you want to play it safe, use statistics. If you want to win big, use probability.

There Are Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics – Mark Twain

Businesses are increasingly using statistics to manage decision making, as evidenced by popular books like Tom Davenport’s Competing on Analytics and the boom in CRM system usage.

The belief is that if we gather more data we can make better decisions. But this may not be true when it comes to innovation.

If you are crunching numbers, you are probably gathering information from existing customers. This will give you insight into their buying habits, usability behaviors, and other patterns. But most likely you are only gathering data on YOUR customers.  This represents the middle of the bell curve or the norm. This information may be useful in “incremental” improvement, but it will rarely lead to significant innovations.

When you move beyond the norm to the far ends of the bell curve, you will find the real interesting ideas.

Being normal is not a virtue; it denotes a lack of courage

On the far right-hand side of the curve are the market leaders; the advanced users. They may not be your customers because you can’t meet their high-end needs. Or maybe they were once your customers and they left. When someone is not a customer it is difficult to gain insights into their wants and needs. If you could somehow understand their perspectives, you may find opportunities for “advanced” innovation and insights on where the industry may be going in the near future. These innovations would be more radical, yet continuous in nature. Think of this as the Blu-ray improvement on the standard DVD (we’ll save a discussion on the demise of HD DVD for another time).

On the far left-hand side of the curve are the laggards; the less sophisticated users. Your products/services may be too advanced, too complicated, or too expensive for their needs. Again, you are probably not gathering statistics on these individuals or organizations. But here lies the greatest opportunity for discontinuous innovation.  Or as Clayton Christensen would call it, disruptive innovation.  If you can find a way of “dumbing down” your offering, you might find new and untapped sources of revenue. Quite often these products become the de facto standard, much like when PCs replaced the more sophisticated mainframes and mini-computers.

The problem is, it is very difficult to get data about the ends of the bell curve. Focus groups, surveys, and other traditional data gathering techniques are useless. I love this quote from Scott Cook at Intuit: “For every one of our failures, we had spreadsheets that looked awesome.” We can use numbers to justify anything we want. But quite often they justify the wrong actions.

The Probable is What Usually Happens - Aristotle

If a statistics-driven innovation model does not work, what would a probability-based model look? Probability tells me that if everything is equal, the more bets I have, the more likely one will be successful. The odds of 1 success out of 200 are greater than 1 success out of 20.

But how can you have more bets without diluting your effort and potential returns? The key is to learn as you go. This is exactly what card counters to.

Let’s contrast a more statistics-driven model with a probability-based model. To do so, we will use two exceedingly simplistic examples. With innovation model #1, you make a few “big bets” based on analytics you gathered from your customers (a statistics-driven model). Innovation model #2 is a more experiential “learn as you go” model (a probability-based model).

In both examples, let’s assume you have $100 million to bet, woops, I mean invest in innovation.

[Read more]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

7 Ways Innovation Can Help Recession-Proof Your Business

As the economy continues to tumble, it is tempting to cut back on your investments in innovation. But now is the perfect time to increase your innovation efforts. Here are seven creative ways that innovation can help you recession-proof your business.

1. Make Your Products/Services More Accessible

Successful companies are now shifting their emphasis away from increased performance and sophistication to increased accessibility and affordability. This helps you tap into an under-served market. Low cost and ultra-portable netbook computers are outselling more expensive models. The Nintendo Wii has sold more boxes than PlayStation and Xbox combined. To learn more about specific innovation strategies, read our articles on The Innovation Bell Curve.

2. Use Open Innovation to Reduce R&D Costs

Sometimes it can be less expensive to have others do your innovating for you. Organizations like InnoCentive enable you to define the “value” of a new idea and then post your request to a large community of expert solvers. This moves innovation from an unpredictable cost (infrastructure, the cost of researchers, and other hidden costs) to a predictable cost (the posting fee and reward).  Other Open Innovation option include asking your customers what they want.  Check out MyStarbucksIdea.com.  Open Innovation is a perfect way to reduce costs while growing the business.  Learn about my own Open Innovation experiences…and dilemmas.

3. Use Process Innovation to Reduce Operating Costs

Innovation is not just about new products or new business models. It can also be focused on ways of reducing operating costs. Use my 7Rs of process innovation to help make your processes more efficient and more effective. I have seen companies reduce costs by 60% while improving responsiveness to customers by as much as 90%. If you can increase service while increasing margins, you are sure to recession-proof your business.  Download my 7Rs worksheet and improve your processes

4. Use Innovation to Match Supply and Demand

Sometimes you only want temporary measures to help you ride out tough times. I worked at Accenture, the large international management consulting firm, for 15 years. During my time there we went through three recessions. Each time the pattern was the same: the economy tanks, customers reduce spending on consulting, Accenture lays off employees, the economy picks up, Accenture scrambles to hire talent. During the 2001 dot-com bubble burst, they used a different approach. Instead of handing out pink slips, they offered a leave of absence for a period of time. The employee on sabbatical would get 20% of their salary (plus benefits) and would be assured a job upon their return. This helped match supply with demand, while keeping morale relatively high. Sometimes a creative solution can help you smooth the ups and downs of the economy.

5. Solve Your Customers’ Pain

Although customers have reduced spending on discretionary items, they may be willing to invest in products or services that eliminate their pains.  Problem solvers are always in big demand.  If their pain is the need for cost containment, how can you do it for them - and take a slice of the action?  In my business, I get more requests for speeches on ”recession proofing” than I do for those on general innovation.   What pain do you solve?  Or how can you make your customer aware of a pain that they may not have noticed?  Learn more about why solving a pain is more powerful…during any economic condition. You may also be interested to learn why the ATM machine was headed for failure…until it was seen as solving a specific pain.

6. Fail Cheaply

If you are truly innovative, you will fail.  If you don’t fail, you are playing it safe.  Therefore, if you are going to fail, FAIL CHEAPLY.  And no, this is not the same as failing fast.  I am not talking about speed, I am addressing the cost to implement.  To fail cheaply, you must embrace the “build it, try it, fix it” mentality.  Build out your idea as a small experiment.  Implement it.  Learn from the experience. My Innovation Personality Poker was developed using this approach.  I first created a simple spreadsheet to test for personalities.  Then I created home-made cards printed at FedEx Kinkos on card stock.  Finally, when we knew it was perfect, we invested in designers and 500 decks of casino-quality poker cards.   Learn more about the “build it, try it, fix it” approach.

7. Before You Can Multiply, You Must First Learn to Divide

While in Asia, I heard a great expression, “Before You Can Multiply, You Must First Learn to Divide.”  I now find myself using this saying nearly every day.  The idea is that if you want to grow your business, you must learn to partner with others - and give them a slice (and a vested interest in YOUR success).  This means you take a smaller slice of a bigger pie.  With the economic downturn, this philosophy is even more appropriate.  People are now hungry for new money making opportunities.  When you help others make money, you make money.  Read more about this powerful, yet simple concept.

BONUS: Use Innovation to Improve Your Suppliers’ Business

We often underestimate the value of our various business partners, and in particular the value of our suppliers. I once worked with a potato chip manufacturer. They were dependent on the quality of the potatoes grown by small, financial unstable growers. Instead of squeezing their suppliers, they helped the suppliers grow their business. They helped the growers buy equipment and fertilizer at reduced costs by leveraging the buying power of the large chip manufacturer. They gave them business loans at reduced rates. When the market gets tight, your suppliers may struggle more than you. But if you help them be successful, you might find you are more successful.

The Bottom Line: Use Innovation to Leapfrog the Competition

While others are tightening their belts, truly successful companies use the recession as a chance to leapfrog their competition. My favorite company, Koch Industries, increases their investments during difficult times. They know that if they focus on innovation while others are cutting costs, they will quickly catapult past everyone else. They must be doing something right. They have grown seven times faster than the S&P 500 for the past 40 years. This is a company that has proven it is recession proof.  Innovation is a powerful tool that can help you ride out the tough times and position you for future growth. With the recession here, you need innovation now more than ever.

Are you looking to hire a speaker for your next event? Learn more about Stephen Shapiro by clicking here.

Watch videos and read testimonials. Click here to read his most frequently requested speaking topics.

Or, contact Stephen now.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Next Page »